PADUA. According to the Virgilian Aeneid, the city was established by Antenore, a Trojan prince (Virgil, Aeneid, 1, 247 - 249), in the year 1185 BC, a tradition that makes Padua one of the oldest cities in the peninsula and the oldest in Veneto.
Although the foundation is legendary, archaeological data have confirmed the ancient origin of the city, which developed between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. and linked to the civilization of the Ancient Venetians. The city was one of the cultural capitals of the fourteenth century; the pictorial evidence of the fourteenth century - among them, Giotto's cycle in the Scrovegni Chapel - make it a crucial node in the development of Western art. The fourteenth-century artistic splendour was one of the fruits of the great cultural fervour favoured by the lordship of the Carraresi that made Padua one of the leading centres of pre-humanism.
The city today is full of streets and squares where history abounds but life as well. The bustle of the shops in the centre, the worldliness, and the unparalleled engine of Paduan know-how create a unique atmosphere, all embellished by superlative historic buildings. Undoubtedly, two of these historic buildings are Palazzo Capodilista -one of the largest palaces in Padua and an odd proof of medieval architecture for residential use- and the elegant Casa Olzignani, built in 1446 by Pietro Lombardo, "one of the most graceful episodes of Paduan architecture of the fifteenth century", so Guadienzo said. These palaces are both in the elegant Via UmbertoI, where there is also the famous eighteenth-century Church of San Daniele. In addition to being beautiful, Via Roma is also an important arterial road connecting Prato Della Valle to the historic core of the city, making it attractive, beautiful, considerable and, above all, noble.